Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)

Director:

Melville Shavelson

Writers:

Ted Berkman (book)
Melville Shavelson (written by)

Release Date:

30 March 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

Outnumbered - unarmed - unprepared - they stunned the world with their incredible victory!

Plot:

An American Army officer is recruited by the yet to exist Israel to help them form an army. He is disturbed by this sudden appeal to his jewish roots...

Plot Keywords:

Israel | Arab | Jewish | Jew | Military

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Col. David 'Mickey' Marcus
Senta Berger	...	Magda Simon
Angie Dickinson	...	Emma Marcus
James Donald	...	Maj. Safir
Stathis Giallelis	...	Ram Oren
Luther Adler	...	Jacob Zion
Topol	...	Abou Ibn Kader
Ruth White	...	Mrs. Chaison
Gordon Jackson	...	James MacAfee
Michael Hordern	...	British ambassador
Allan Cuthbertson	...	Immigration officer
Jeremy Kemp	...	British Immigration senior
Sean Barrett	...	British Immigration junior
Michael Shillo	...	Andre Simon
Rina Ganor	...	Rona
Roland Bartrop	...	Bert Harrison
Robert Gardett	...	Gen. Walsh
Michael Balston	...	Sentry #1
Claude Aliotti	...	Sentry #2
Samra Dedes	...	Belly dancer
Micha Shagrir	...	Truck driver (as Michael Shagrir)
Frank Latimore	...	UN officer
Ken Buckle	...	UN officer
Rod Dana	...	Aide to Gen. Randolph (as Rodd Dana)
Robert Ross	...	Aide to Chief of Staff
Arthur Hansel	...	Officer
Dan Sturkie	...	Parachute sergeant (as Don Sturkie)
Hillel Rave	...	Yaakov
Shlomo Hermon	...	Yussuf
Frank Sinatra	...	Vince Talmadge
Yul Brynner	...	Asher Gonen
John Wayne	...	Gen. Mike Randolph
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vera Dolen	...	Mrs. Martinson (scenes deleted)
Gary Merrill	...	Pentagon Chief of Staff (scenes deleted)
Winston Churchill	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Michael Douglas	...	Jeep driver (uncredited)
Rudolf Hess	...	Himself at Nuremberg (archive footage) (uncredited)
Fiorello LaGuardia	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Danny Perlman	...	Jeep driver (uncredited)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Jimmy Shaw	...	Jeep Driver (uncredited)
Joseph Stalin	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Melville Shavelson

Writing credits
Ted Berkman		(book)
Melville Shavelson		(written by)

Produced by
Melville Shavelson	....	producer
Michael Wayne	....	co-producer

Original Music by
Elmer Bernstein

Cinematography by
Aldo Tonti

Film Editing by
Bert Bates
Gene Ruggiero

Casting by
Lynn Stalmaster
Irene Howard		(uncredited)

Production Design by
Michael Stringer

Art Direction by
Arrigo Equini

Set Decoration by
Ferdinando Ruffo

Costume Design by
Margaret Furse

Makeup Department
Dave Grayson	....	makeup artist (as David Grayson)
Vasco Reggiani	....	hair stylist (as Vasco Regianni)
Euclide Santoli	....	makeup artist
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Nate H. Edwards	....	production manager (as Nate Edwards)
Shlomo Mugrabi	....	unit production manager: Israel (as Shlomo Mograbi)
Patrick J. Palmer	....	unit manager
Allen K. Wood	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack N. Reddish	....	assistant director (as Jack Reddish)
Jack N. Reddish	....	second unit director (as Jack Reddish)
Charles R. Scott Jr.	....	assistant director (as Charles Scott Jr.)
Tim Zinnemann	....	assistant director

Art Department
Joe LaBella	....	property master (as Joseph La Bella)
Danny Perlman	....	assistant property master (uncredited)

Sound Department
David Bowen	....	sound
Chuck Overhulser	....	sound editor
Clem Portman	....	sound re-recordist
Marvin Walowitz	....	dialogue editor (uncredited)
James D. Young	....	assistant sound editor (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Sass Bedig	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Joseph Nathanson	....	matte artist (as Joseph Natanson)

Stunts
Ken Buckle	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Cooper	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joe Powell	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Marko Ya'acobi	....	camera operator: second unit (as Marco Yakovlevich)
Bob Penn	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Annalisa Nasalli-Rocca	....	wardrobe supervisor

Music Department
Richard Carruth	....	music editor
Jack Hayes	....	orchestrator
Dov Seltzer	....	composer: song "Next Year in Jerusalem"
Leo Shuken	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Avraham Leibman	....	mechanic
Guy Luongo	....	production coordinator: Italy
Marion Mertes	....	script supervisor
Wayne Fitzgerald	....	title designer (uncredited)
Ralph M. Leo	....	production accountant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Batjac Productions
• Bryna Productions
• Llenroc Productions
• Mirisch Corporation, The

Distributors

• United Artists (1966) (USA) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1970) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1997) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• United Artists (1966) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1967) (France) (theatrical) (as Les Artistes Associés )
• Warner Home Video (????) (West Germany) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Air France  special equipment

Runtime:

146 min | USA:138 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | South Korea:12 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:Atp | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Batjac Productions

Trivia:

Director Melville Shavelson and Kirk Douglas fought throughout the shoot. At one point, Shavelson even walked off the set, leaving his assistant to take over for the day.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Colonel Marcus gives Magda his good conduct medal before he departs the first time. The good conduct medal is only awarded to enlisted soldiers. Colonel Marcus graduated from West Point and was a commissioned officer during his entire army career, and therefore would not have received this medal.

Quotes:

Abou Ibn Kader: Ram Oren, don't wet your pants again.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2006) (V)

Tribute to Israel's Military Genius and Fighting Heart

The great fighting heart and spirit of the Israeli people was not developed by one man. It was embodied in the dream of every Jewish peasant who for two previous generations contributed even pennies to Theodore Herzl's Zionist organization. And for the holocaust survivors it represented their last chance for a place in the world that was truly their's. No longer to be a guest in everyone else's country.

The heart and spirit were there when part Palestine became the state of Israel, but the military leadership was provided by a man born like myself in Brooklyn, New York. Colonel David "Mickey" Marcus was a West Point graduate who opted for a civilian career as a lawyer and dabbled in politics. His political allies at one time or other were Fiorello LaGuardia and Tom Dewey. He held various appointive positions in the LaGuardia administration in New York. When World War II broke out, Marcus went back in the army and for the most part given his legal training worked in the Judge Advocate General's office, but later did see combat with the Third Army under George Patton.

Kirk Douglas plays Marcus and for him, this must have been a role he relished given his background as the son of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine. The film opens with James Donald representing the Haganah literally accosting Douglas in Macy's 1947 and explaining he's about the fiftieth person they've contacted to be a military adviser to the provisional government in Palestine. Douglas explains he hasn't been in Temple since his bar mitzvah and really doesn't consider himself much of a religious Jew or even a cultural one. By the end of the film, he's developed pride in his religion and ethnicity and earnestly commits to the struggle.

You might have expected Douglas's own Bryna Productions to have produced Cast a Giant Shadow, but co-producing it with the Mirisch Brothers was Batjac Productions which was John Wayne's company. Wayne took a minor role in the production as General Mike Randolph who is clearly Patton. Made clear by the prominent two stars Wayne has on his helmet in flashbacks to World War II which later become three stars during the scene of a concentration camp liberation.

Well Patton as we all know was killed in December 1945 in that jeep accident in occupied Germany. So obviously a decision was made to fictionalize Wayne's name in order to give him a bigger part as a man who encourages his former subordinate in his work.

And if Wayne were fictionalized then some others had to be also. Yul Brynner as Asher was definitely Moshe Dayan who was winning the Six Day War when Cast a Giant Shadow came out. Luther Adler's character name was Jacob Zion and he was clearly David Ben-Gurion. Michael Hordern has a brief part and is just listed as British Ambassador in the credits and that would have been Lord Halifax then.

Also fictionalized was Marcus's fling with his female aide who is played by Senta Berger. She serves kind of like his Kay Summersby. Should never have been part of the film, but maybe the producers decided a little sex was needed. Marcus's wife in America is played by Angie Dickinson.

Even though Cast a Giant Shadow is based on a true story, the film does suffer in comparison to the film made of Leon Uris's novel about the founding of Israel, Exodus. Most of that novel did make it on the screen. It's characters were better developed in a much longer film that held the interest throughout.

Cast a Giant Shadow also had its moments of silliness. There was a whole scene with Frank Sinatra as a mercenary pilot joining the new Israeli army dropping seltzer bottles on the enemy. Whatever possessed the powers that be to let that into the film?

I will say that the battle scenes were well staged and the politics albeit one sided were clearly stated. Like Exodus in that way. One of the most moving scenes of the film was the announcement at the birth of Israel of the telegram from the American President Harry Truman announcing recognition of the new state accompanied with reverent singing of the Hatikvoh, Israel's national anthem. That same scene was also in Exodus, but both were done well.

Of course the climax of the film is when Luther Adler makes the American visitor the commander over all the forces on the Jerusalem/Negev front. As he says, the last man who held this title is found in the Old Testament of the Bible and his name was Joshua. That's the scene when Kirk Douglas finally realizes what his heritage truly is and it is moving.

Despite it's flaws, Cast a Giant Shadow is a wonderful tribute to the men and women who fought and still fight to maintain the State of Israel. Even though it does suffer in comparison to Exodus, it has plenty of merit on its own.